The ICANN-Studienkreis is an open network of individuals from different Internet constituencies from the private sector, the academia, the civil society, the media and the government. Established in 1999 as a critical but constructive watchdog, the ICANN Studienkreis organizes annual high level expert seminars on subjects, related to Internet Governance and the development of ICANN. Previous meetings took place in Leipzig (2000), Zürich (2001), Moscow (2001), Salzburg (2002), Berlin (2003), Aarhus (2004), Brussels (2005), Prague (2006), Warsaw (2007), Helsinki (2008), Barcelona (2010), Budapest (2011), Oslo (2012), Pisa (2013), Sofia (2014), Amsterdam (2015), Dubrovnik (2016), Stockholm (2017), Tallinn (2018). The ICANN Studienkreis is independent from ICANN, but it is supported by active members of the ICANN community.
Speakers at the meetings included, inter alia, present and former ICANN CEOs and Chairs as Vint Cerf, Esther Dyson, Paul Twomey, Peter Dengate Thrush, Fadi Chehade, Göran Marby and many members of the ICANN Board as well as ICANN Councils and Committees.
Since 2013 the annual ICANN Studienkreis meetings are taking place under Chatham House rules in a round table format with a limitation to 40+ participants to enable a free and interactive discussion.
The meetings are a unique opportunity for a truly multistakeholder dialogue where leading experts from the private sector, the technical community and civil society meet key players from governments and parliaments.
Among the participants had been, inter alia, Nitin Desai, former Chair of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG), Lynn St. Amour, former President and CEO of ISOC, Markus Kummer, former Executive Secretary of the UN Internet Governance Forum, Axel Pawlik, CEO of RIPE NCC, Jari Arko, former Chair of the IETF, Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, Larry Strickling, former Assistant Secretary U.S. Department of Commerce, Elmar Brok, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, Jyrki Kasvi, Chair of the Committee of the Future of the Finish Parliament, Michael Frankl, former Minister of Informatics of the Czech government, Siegfried Mosdorf, Vice-Minister of the German Ministry for Economics, Marina Kaljurand, former Estonian Foreign Minister and many others.